A while ago I was contacted through my site to do a book review for an author, the book in question was Beyond Broccoli by Susan Schenck. I took my time reading the book because it was an entirely foreign concept to me since it was aimed primarily at vegan or vegetarian dieters. The author herself was a raw food advocate until her health started to suffer which lead her to employ different strategies to try to improve her health.
The beginning of the book is basically a summary of the author’s life and dietary habits up to the present. The rest of the first section delves into the myths that surround modern-day vegetarianism as well as the origins of vegetarian diets.
The second part of the book looks at how people’s dietary needs have changed over time and the effects it has had on our health. The author, at all times, lists a variety of studies and research to back up every point she makes in the book. At times there are a little to many research track backs for my liking, it seems as if you are reading a science study rather than a person’s point of view on a given subject.
In part three the book starts to look at actually building a diet around a vegetarian, or RAW, diet while maintaining optimum health. Again, there are a wealth of research related side notes and expert quotes plopped around this section to back up the credibility of the author and add kudos to her research abilities.
The final parts of the book, four and five, go over the moral and sustainability aspects of being a vegetarian while also preaching about the benefits of eating raw diets. All of the questions that one might think up while pondering a raw diet such as how safe raw meat is or how to prepare raw meat are covered within these latter chapters so there is no need to worry about that.
As I said at the beginning of this post I took time to read this book not only because I was personally asked to but also because it is an entirely foreign concept to me as I am an omnivore through and through. I have never contemplated going vegan or even attempting a RAW diet as I was raised on eating meat and vegetables together. Some of the concepts in the book were not so foreign to me such as ketosis.
The author has done an extremely good job of researching all the points she is putting across and has a lot of information available to back up any points that may seem debatable. There are plenty of expert input in the book as well since the author sought reputable sources of information rather than just scouring the internet and dredging up obscure texts from medical dumping grounds.
I would highly recommend this book to people who are possibly looking at giving the vegan or vegetarian lifestyle a go. There is a wealth of information to be absorbed from this book even if you don’t plan on living the lifestyle, like me. Although I do not plan on going raw, vegan or vegetarian anytime soon I did gain insight into the reasons behind why people do decide to adopt these lifestyles and also learned a few new tricks to add into my own diet a long the way.
-Andrew
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